弘明集 1.44

1.44

The questioner asked: Can grains really be abstained from? Mouzi said: When I had not yet understood the Great Dao, I also once studied this. The methods of abstaining from grains number in the thousands and hundreds of techniques; practicing them brought no effect, and doing them brought no verification, so I abandoned them. Looking at the three masters whom I followed and studied under, some claimed to be seven hundred, five hundred, or three hundred years old. Yet while I studied under them, before three years had passed they each passed away. Why was this so? It was because they cut off grains and did not eat, yet consumed all kinds of fruits; when enjoying meat, it was piled on multiple platters; when drinking wine, they drained their cups. Their essence was disordered, their spirits dimmed, and the grain qi was not replenished; their ears and eyes were deluded and confused, and their wanton desires were unrestrained. I asked them the reason for this, and they replied: 'Laozi said: "Decrease it and further decrease it, until one arrives at non-action." One should simply decrease daily.' Yet when I observed them, they only increased daily and did not decrease. Thus each of them died before reaching the age of knowing the decree of Heaven. Furthermore, Yao, Shun, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius could not even reach a hundred years, yet the foolish and deluded of this latter age wish to ingest concoctions and abstain from grains to seek infinite longevity. How lamentable!